The Kerala Police on Thursday arrested seven people, including a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, for assaulting a pregnant woman in Kodencheri town in the stateâs Kozhikode district. The woman had to undergo an abortion after the attack, ANI reported.

The seven people assaulted the woman, Josna Sibi, on January 28 when she tried to intervene in a boundary dispute between them and her husband. During the fight, CPI(M) Branch Secretary from Velamcode, Thambi, kicked her in the stomach, the police said. The four-month pregnant woman was taken to a hospital, where she had to undergo an abortion as her placenta was damaged.

Sibi and her family had lodged a police complaint on February 2, following which one person was arrested on February 8, according to local daily Manorama. But on Wednesday, the woman and her family protested outside a polic e station demanding the arrest of the others involved.

âWe had a problem with our neighbours regarding the boundary wall,â Sibi said. âThey used to threaten us, even late at night, and also used foul language.â On the day of the incident, a person named Syedhalavi and a few others went to their house and said that they had a problem with her husband, Siby Chacko Thenumkuzhy, she said, adding that she had immediately alerted the police. âNearly eight people came into our house and attacked my husband and my child,â Sibi told ANI. The police had refused to help citing a lack of vehicles at the station, she claimed.

Her husband Thenumkuzhy told Times Now that the local CPI (M) leaders are putting pressure on him to withdraw their police complaint. âThese party goons are pressurising me to withdraw the complaint after the incident and they have all the support of the party,â he was quoted as saying. âMy decision is to fight the case till the end.â